With the recent popularization of word processors having thermal-transfer devices, a thermal-transfer recording medium comprising a support having thereon a heat-meltable ink layer has now been used extensively.
However, in the conventional thermal-transfer recording medium, its printing quality is liable to be affected by the surface smoothness of a transfer image-receiving medium such as paper, and when used for printing in a high-speed thermal-transfer recording device, it lacks transfer sensitivity to invite deterioration of the print quality, particularly of resolution.
In order to improve the transfer sensitivity, various attempts have been made to have the heat-meltable layer of the thermal-transfer recording medium made in the form of a multilayer composition or provided with a specific peeling layer.
Conventionally known as the peeling layer is one composed principally of a wax such as paraffin.
However, such a peeling layer has a poor peeling characteristic. In order to improve the peeling characteristic, a low-melting paraffin must be used, but in that case, its low-molecular paraffin moiety moves to the ink layer (coloring agent layer), resulting in the deterioration of its printing quality.
To avoid this, the use of a high-melting paraffin or of polyethylene wax as a principal component of the peeling layer is disclosed in JP O.P.I. Nos. 68786/1987 and 8739I/1987. The disclosed technique, however, has the problem that in a high-speed printing, the peeling characteristic becomes insufficient and no sufficient transfer sensitivity is obtained.
The present invention has been made on the basis of the above-mentioned situation.